Pittsburgh Speakers

Pittsburgh Area Conference – October 22th 2011 Lineup

William Konkolesky is Director of the Michigan Chapter of MUFON, a state with a rich history of major multiple-witness UFO events. Eye-opening details of some of these mysterious Michigan sightings from over the years will be shared in Konkoleskys conference presentation UFOs Over Michigan, one of many UFO talks he regularly delivers. Besides being a guest in multiple radio and print interviews, Konkoleskys television appearances include SyFy’s “Abduction Diaries,” ABC’s “Peter Jennings’ UFOs: Seeing is Believing,” the upcoming National Geographic “The Truth Behind UFOs” and he has additionally worked as a consultant for History Channel’s “UFO Hunters.” Konkolesky is also the author of a book on his lifelong personal paranormal encounters, Experiencer: Raised in Two World

Stanton T. Friedman received his BSc. and MSc. Degrees in physics from the University of Chicago in 1955 and 1956. He became interested in UFOs in 1958, and since 1967 has lectured about them at more than 600 colleges and 100 professional groups in 50 U.S. states, 9 Canadian provinces and 16 other countries in addition to various nuclear consulting efforts. He has published more than 90 UFO papers and has appeared on hundreds of radio and TV programs including on Larry King in 2007 and twice in 2008, and many documentaries. He is the original civilian investigator of the Roswell Incident and co-authored Crash at Corona: The Definitive Study of the Roswell Incident. TOP SECRET/MAJIC, his controversial book about the Majestic 12 group, established in 1947 to deal with alien technology, was published in 1996 and went through 6 printings. An expanded new edition was published in 2005. Stan was presented with a Lifetime UFO Achievement Award in Leeds, England, in 2002, by UFO Magazine of the UK. He is co-author with Kathleen Marden (Betty Hill’s niece) of a book in 2007: Captured! The Betty and Barney Hill UFO Experience. The City of Fredericton, New Brunswick, declared August 27, 2007, Stanton Friedman Day. His book Flying Saucers and Science was published in June 2008 and is in its 3rd printing. His newest book, also co-authored with Kathleen Marden, is Science Was Wrong released in June 2010.

John Ventre is the fourth and current Pennsylvania State Director, taking over in 2007. John will be speaking about 2012 and his book The Day After 2012. Delve into various End Time Prophecies from Hopi, Web Bot and Biblical, to Edgar Cayce and Jeanne Dixon. Why did the Mayans start with the date of 12/21/2012 and count backwards to create their perfectly accurate calendar? Follow the greatest discovery in our history after the “Event” in this fast paced theme park ride, and find out if we are a product of creation, evolution, or genetic engineering. It’s been predicted. We can all sense it in our collective memory and it’s coming. If you think these are the bad times; wait until 2013. . . .

David Twichell was born in Detroit, Michigan in 1948. He served in the US Army in Germany from 1969 til 1971. Although he worked as a Diemaker for the Ford Motor Co. since the age of eighteen, he has been an avid student of the Bible, the UFO/abduction and psychic phenomena since his own close encounter sighting in 1962. He retired at age 52 to become a field investigator for The Mutual UFO Network (MUFON). He has guested on radio and TV talk shows. He presently hosts his own weekly local cable TV show entitled, “We Are Not Alone.” Most of his time is devoted to writing about and lecturing on the Biblical UFO hypothesis. Mr. Twichell has frequently lectured on the subject matter of his recent book, The UFO – Jesus Connection. Although the ancient astronaut and Biblical UFO hypotheses is his expertise, he is also knowledgeable of the Disclosure Project and the overall UFO/abduction phenomena.

Pittsburgh Area Conference – October 23rd 2011 Lineup

Eric Altman is the Pennsylvania Bigfoot Society Director. Eric was born in Greensburg Pennsylvania. Eric was born in August, 1970. Eric’s interest in Bigfoot began at the age of 10. He spent most of his childhood reading books on Bigfoot, the paranormal and the unexplained. At the age of 14, Eric met Stan Gordon who would inspire him to become a Bigfoot field researcher. Eric began active field research in 1997. Steve Anderson and Henry Benton formed the Pennsylvania Bigfoot Society. In April 1999, Eric became a member of the Pennsylvania Bigfoot Society. In January 2000, Eric was asked to become the Director of the PBS which he has held since. Eric has over 29 years combined in researching and investigation the Bigfoot Phenomenon and field investigations. Eric also serves as the chairperson for the East Coast Bigfoot Conference. Eric has been involved in various organizations and remains an active member of several Bigfoot organizations and serves as a consultant for several paranormal organizations as well. These groups have included the Bigfoot Field Research Organization, the Sasquatch Research Initiative, The American Bigfoot Society, The Paranormal Society of Pennsylvania, the Pennsylvania Researchers Organization, Sasquatch Watch of Virginia, Squatch Detective, The Mid America Bigfoot Research Center, and many other organizations. Eric has appeared frequently in local and national newspaper articles. He has been interviewed numerous times for both radio and television media and has also appeared in numerous magazine articles.

Billy Willard is owner of an environmental consulting firm. He oversees various types of environmental assessment and cleanup projects (e.g., leaking underground petroleum tanks, environmental site assessments, and soil/groundwater remediation). Billy became interested in the Bigfoot phenomena early in life as a kid after watching such movies as the Legend of Boggy Creek and the Creature From Black Lake. In 2005, Billy and his son Josh formed Sasquatch Watch of Virginia. Billy is a member and investigator for the American Bigfoot Society (ABS), The Alliance of Independent Bigfoot Researchers (AIBR), the Northeast Sasquatch Researchers Association (NESRA) and the Pennsylvania Bigfoot Society (PBS).

Steve Kulls is a researcher referred to as the “Squatchdetective.”
Steve had a lifelong fascination with the Bigfoot phenomena since an early age. In 1998 after reading “Monsters of the Northwoods”, Steve like many of the general population had believed that sightings were exclusive to the Pacific Northwest, learned that there were numerous sighting reports close to his residence in upstate New York. Steve began his quest first in 1998 seeking knowledge from other researchers in the field. In 2003 Steve met two of the authors of Monsters of the Northwoods and was invited to apply for BFRO membership. By that time Steve had his own small grass roots organization and website, called the Adirondack Research Organization. One of Steve’s first tasks was to examine the Sonoma video. After Steve had talked to the lead investigator, John Freitas Steve conducted picture analysis on the videographer’s website where it was determined the time line did not match the photos at all and Steve declared the Sonoma video a hoax on that premise. Several months later it was revealed that the video was perpetrated by the comic duo of Penn and Teller for their cable TV series. Today after a brief respite, Steve continues his fight against hoaxers and misnomers in the field, while trying to ferret out the gems and possibly obtain the scientific evidence to prove to the scientific community Sasquatches do exist. Steve firmly believes in a “boots on the ground”, methodology of obtaining evidence for or against, evidence regarding the Sasquatch mystery. Steve has appeared on numerous local news programs around the country and national venues such as Fox and Friends, and interviewed in print in over 100 newspapers over the last ten years. Steve has appeared most recently on the History Channel series, MonsterQuest

Stan Gordon has conducted On Scene Investigations of thousands of mysterious encounters across Pennsylvania. Stan gained prominence in the field of UFO research as the authority on The Kecksburg UFO Incident. He is also well regarded in the area of paranormal research with his first hand investigation into a series of documented Bigfoot encounters and UFO sightings that occurred throughout Pennsylvania in 1973. Stan created the Westmoreland County UFO Study Group in 1970 which expanded into the Pennsylvania Center for UFO Research in 1975. Stan served as State Director of the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) during the 1970’s. In 1981, Stan founded and served as Director of the Pennsylvania Association for the Study of the Unexplained as well as editor of the PASU Data Exchange, a newsletter covering cases of phenomena investigated in Pennsylvania. PASU consisted of an all volunteer research unit which ceased operation in November of 1993. He received the 1987 MUFON Meritorious Achievement in a UFO Investigation Award; the first award of its kind. Stan has presented lectures on these subjects to professional and civic organizations, continues to receive requests for similar presentations, and has conducted adult education courses on the subject of UFOs at the Westmoreland County Community College. In addition, Stan has been listed in the Directory of Experts, Authorities, and Spokespersons (formerly known as The Talk Show Guest Directory) and in The International Who’s Who in UFOlogy Directory by Robert D. Boyd (1988).

Dave Dragosin has been a member of the Pennsylvania Bigfoot Society for the last 7 years and serves as the current Assistant director in Western Pennsylvania. Pryor to joining the PBS he was an independent researcher for 25 years. Dave has been really busy investigating all the reports that have been flowing into the PBS since 2009. Dave will be discussing witness sketches at the conference.

D. Jeffrey Meldrum, Ph.D., is an associate professor of anatomy and anthropology at Idaho State University and an affiliate curator of vertebrate palaeontology at the Idaho Museum of Natural History. He is best known for his open-minded yet scientific approach to the bigfoot phenomenon. Because he grew up in the Pacific Northwest, Meldrum was no stranger to the subject, having heard sasquatch stories from an early age. His interest in the legendary creature took a back burner as he continued his formal education and teaching until 1996, when he found and cast a series of fresh sasquatch prints in Washington and, the following year, northern California. Meldrum has since gathered and purchased collections of purported track casts as part of his research into sasquatch foot anatomy, and his lab now houses what may be the world’s most extensive collection of sasquatch track casts. Meldrum is widely considered the leading expert on sasquatch footprints as well as the derived morphology and functional anatomy of the foot.